believe what they have usually seen" (above, 3,7).
380 The Literal Meaning of Genesis
Why they did not in fact couple in Paradise
4, 8. So then, why did they not in fact couple until they had departed from Paradise? The quick answer can be given: because no sooner was the woman made than before they came together the transgression occurred, which earned them their sentence ofdeath and their departure from that place offelicity . Scrip ture, you see, does not state how much time elapsed between their being made and Cain being born of them. It could also be said that it was because God had not yet ordered them to couple. Why, after all, should they not have waited for divine authority for this business, when no lust, like a spur of the disobedient flesh,8 was driving them on? The reason however that God had not given this order was because he was disposing all things according to his foreknowledge, by which he undoubtedly foresaw their fall, from which time onward it would be a mortal human race that had to be propagated.
Exceptfor the purpose ofprocreation, another man would have been a more suitable companionfor Adam
5. 9. Or if it was not for help in producing children that a wife was made for the man, then what other help was she made for? If it was to till the earth together with him, there was as yet no hard toil to need such assistance; and if there had been the need, a male would have made a better help. The same can be said about companionship, should he grow tired of solitude. How much more agreeably, after all, for conviviality and conversation would two male friends live together on equal terms than man and wife? While if it was expedient that one should be in charge and the other should comply, to avoid a clash of wills disturbing the peace of the household, such an arrangement would have been ensured by one being made first, the other later, especially if the latter were created from the former, as the female was in fact created. Or would anyone say that God was only able to make a female from the man's rib, and not also a male if he so wished? For these reasons I cannot work out what help a wife could have been made to provide the man with, if you take away the purpose of childbearing.9
How one generation could have given way to the next had there been no sin
6. 10. But now, if it was right and proper for parents to give way to their chil dren by departing this life, so that in this way the whole human race could mount up to a definite predetermined number through a succession of generations, it
8. See 2 Cor 1 2:7 for the phrase; not that Augustine would have supposed that it was this kind of spur or sting that Paul was given, to stop him getting swollen-headed. 9. Augustine in this little chapter does seem to have put himself in the class "ofthose who can only believe what they have usually seen" (above, 3,7).